Gov. Mark Sanford and a contingent of other state leaders met Tuesday with U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to lobby for a multi-billion dollar nuclear triggers factory at the Savannah River Site.

During the meeting in Washington, Republican Sanford told Abraham that SRS is best suited to make the nuclear weapons components.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and other leaders from South Carolina and Georgia also attended the session in an attempt to show unified support for the plant.

"I've said all along that I believe SRS is the ideal site for this project,'' Sanford said after the meeting.

SRS is one of five sites nationally in the running for the triggers factory, if the government decides to build the facility.

Nuclear triggers are grapefruit-sized spheres that go in nuclear weapons. The DOE could make 125 to 450 triggers, or pits, per year at a new facility, according to plans.

The plant would create up to 1,800 jobs and cost $2 billion to $4 billion. Federal officials are expected to choose a site by spring.

Many elected officials and business leaders back the production plant. They argue that SRS has the existing equipment and expertise to handle new plutonium missions, such as a triggers plant for nuclear weapons.

Anti-nuclear activists say the facility isn't necessary and could be a catalyst for restarting a nuclear weapons buildup in the United States. They criticized the lobbying efforts Tuesday, saying politicians care most about the jobs the plant will bring.

The DOE has yet to justify building the plutonium pit plant anywhere, said activist Tom Clements, who tracks nuclear issues for the environmental group Greenpeace. Clements also predicted the plant will be a hard sell in Congress, given the cost of the war in Iraq.

"It just reveals that they really want the money and they don't care if there is any justification for this plant,''' Clements said. "If they are lobbying in advance of any scientific information that the facility is needed, then that is ludicrous.''

But in statements after the meeting, Sanford and Graham said the triggers plant is needed and is strongly supported in South Carolina and Georgia.

"Our message was simple and clear: The Savannah River Site is the most secure, competent and cost effective location for building a modern pit facility,'' Graham said.

The DOE is considering the plant to replace aging triggers it has stockpiled. The triggers were formerly made in Colorado, but the Rocky Flats nuclear facility has not produced them since 1989. And Rocky Flats is closing.

Others at the meeting included Republican S.C. House Speaker David Wilkins; U.S. Reps. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C., and Charlie Norwood, R-Ga.; state Sens. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and Tom Moore, D-Aiken; Graham, R-S.C.; and U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia.

DOE spokesman Joe Davis said the agency welcomes the support from South Carolina and Georgia leaders.

"We appreciate it when members of Congress make us feel wanted, as we do from the elected officials down there,'' Davis said.